I wish the title had been 'The Big White Conservation Lie' for that would have been more apt. This book raises fundamental questions about the philosophical basis of conservation, with Kenya as the case study. It also answers those questions, in a scatter-gun tour de force of empirical observation and righteous professional anger. Although the book has flaws, which I shall mention later, it is essentially right in its argument that the basis on which Kenyan conservation has been thought about should be ditched. I would go further and say we should ditch the way we have thought about conservation, period.
Essentially, conservation thinking is trapped by its roots in western colonialism and the adventure of white people exploring Africa. It is time for a change. Not least, because the way western thought romanticises Africa also destroys African ways of thinking and acting. Unless this domination of ideas changes, there is a danger of driving those African ways of thinking into oblivion under the guise of an approved western-oriented education system, not to mention a prolific literature, both academic and popular, plus wildlife campaigns and hype.
The book is thus very timely, and should be taken extremely seriously by policy-makers, the education system and media in Kenya. Kenyan children should not continue growing up under the assumption that they are the bad guys who do not understand the value of wildlife, and buying into the Big Conservation Lie that only well-intentioned white people can tell them what to think and do about conserving it. Mbaria and Ogada have put their feet aggressively in the door and their argument must be listened to, and form the basis of Kenya's future conservation work.
As they state, it is simply a lie that Kenyan people have been living for centuries in a state of enmity to wildlife and the environment and would have exterminated and destroyed both were it not for western conservationism. As the authors point out, the very existence of that wildlife and environment demonstrates the truth. People living among them have deep-rooted value systems and customs that conserve. In fact, they relate to wildlife and the environment in ways that are much more sophisticated than the hit-and-run approach of western conservationists that are detailed in this book. The latest of these is the 'value' system based on the economic value of tourism, neatly exposed by empirical data and reasoning by Mbaria and Ogada.
Read Lee-Smith's full review on awaazmagazine.com→

About The Author

Author
Alix Grubel

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